


Kita and Bret

by canufeelthemagictonight



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Bad Bitches, Bretman is a Good Friend, Cute, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Male-Female Friendship, Nicknames, Nikita misses Manny, Stubborn Bretman, Survivor Guilt, quick reference to Oli/Eva if you squint, set between s3 and s4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-09 13:44:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19888795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canufeelthemagictonight/pseuds/canufeelthemagictonight
Summary: Without him, she might've gone off the rails a while ago.Nikita leans on Bretman for support after Everlock, and when the chips fall, they're in this together.An Escape the Night one-shot.





	Kita and Bret

Nikita's a bad bitch, and you can't kill her, but even bad bitches need solid ground to stand on when their worlds fall apart at the seams. Joey rarely answers her calls. Matt stops by at least once every week, but he's got a wife and a baby and a circle of gaming friends to worry about, and Lord knows he doesn't need a shattered Troublemaker on top of all that. Gabby and Laura do their best to help, but they're grieving just as much as she is. Manny...well...Manny's not here anymore. Because of her.

So, three weeks after her return to 2018, she moves into Bretman Rock's apartment in LA.

People always say that they're practically the same person. Both are sassy, take-charge, confident individuals, and both know how to rock the perfect look. Maybe that's why Nikita chooses him as her new part-time roommate; after all, it's nice to have another version of herself running around. Especially since that other version doesn't know what it's like to go through hell.

"Hey, Nikita!" Bretman leaps into the room, all smiles and infectious energy. "You up for doing a collab today? I was thinking we could transform ourselves into each other again." He waggles a wig in front of her face. "Come on! You _know_ you wanna!"

Nikita shrugs. "Sure. Why not. Just don't mess up my lashes, bitch."

"I would _never,"_ he assures her, using an exaggerated fake bow for emphasis.

A few hours later, she looks like him, and he looks like her, and it's almost impossible for either of them to tell the difference. Bretman throws his head back laughing like a child. Nikita lets herself grin.

Without him, she might've gone off the rails a while ago.

She wants to comfort herself by remembering Manny's face, or his voice, or his smile, or his laughter, or even the way he used to gasp in exaggerated surprise whenever something remotely out of the ordinary happened. Those are nice images. She wishes she could hold on to them, the way Matt holds on to his memories of Rosanna and Safiya.

But whenever she tries to think of his face, all she can see are his wide, frightened eyes.

Whenever she tries to think of his voice, all she can hear is "Nikita, no, you're not gonna shoot me, you're not gonna shoot me..."

Whenever she tries to think of his smile or his laughter, all she can think of is his final expression right before she pulled the trigger on him. Disbelief. Betrayal. As if he was just then realizing that everything she ever told him was an accidental lie.

"Kita, wake up, you're having a nightmare, Kita, it's fine, you're okay!"

Nikita was never one for nicknames. This is mostly because the only nickname anyone ever thought to gave her was Nyc, and that name is dead to her. But Bretman calls her Kita, sometimes, in their softest moments, when no one is around except for them.

"Bret?" She opens her eyes and immediately registers two things: one, that she's been crying, and two, that he's holding her hand. "What...oh, _dammit,_ did I wake you up again?"

He seems sheepish. "You were screaming, and I was scared, so here I am."

"I'm sorry."

"No, it's not your fault, it's..." He stumbles for someone to blame. "The cult. They shouldn't have hurt you like that. If I could go and give those bitches a piece of my damn mind..."

 _You don't know what happened there,_ murmurs some dark corner of her soul, and she falls crying into his arms.

It's the first week of January, six months after Everlock, when Joey finally tells her what he's been up to.

"You think you can _save_ them?" Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't believe him, but she saw Matt come back to life, so at this point, anything is possible. "How? Is it the Harp again? Or is it that damn crystal you found?"

"The crystal," he says. "I've been training for three months with the Society Against Evil, and they say I'm ready for my last chance."

"And you want me to help you? But I'm not trained at all!"

"They said I could bring friends. I didn't wanna bring anyone who hasn't already dealt with this, so I decided to ask you guys. Matt's already agreed."

 _Of course he did. For Ro, he'd do anything._ "There are other survivors, aren't there? From the other two times this shit happened?" She should know. She's met them before. "What about Oli?"

"He's in Britain."

"Eva?"

"Also in Britain."

"Andrea?"

"She laughed in my face."

"Tyler?"

"I didn't..." His voice breaks. "I don't wanna ask him. He's done so much to keep everyone's memory alive, and...I dunno...I just _can't._ Not this time."

Nikita remembers all of Tyler's various videos, foundations, fundraisers, and other projects, and she nods in understanding. "So it would just be Matt and me."

"And me!" Joey reminds her. "So, Nikita, what do you say?"

There's a part of Nikita that wants to say _fuck off, bitch, I'm not going on any more missions with your ass,_ but then she thinks of the two teardrops tattooed on her face (one for each person she's killed), and she makes up her mind. "Okay. I'm in." She leans into the phone. "So when and where are we going?"

Bretman returns from his Hawaii home just in time to walk in on Nikita adding the finishing touches to her Rescue Outfit. "Girl," he snarks, "what's with the Babydoll cosplay? Comic-Con isn't till July."

"Uh..." Nikita turns pale. _Shit. I forgot to tell him._ "I'm kinda...going on a...mission. To do things. Tonight. I'll be back in the morning. Don't wait up for me."

"The last time you told me you were going on a 'mission,' you went missing for three months," Bretman reminds her.

"It's not like that!" What is she supposed to tell him? _"Yeah, I'm gonna go try and bring my dead friends back to life, just another Saturday, huh?"_ He'd think she's lost her mind! "It's..." Any potential explanations fizzle like soda on her tongue.

He frowns. "It's what?"

No answer.

"Kita?"

"Manny." Her former best friend's name slips out like a secret. "It's for Manny. That's all you need to know."

Bretman considers this briefly, then sets his jaw. "I'm coming with you."

"You're _not."_

"I _am._ You're _not_ disappearing on me, bitch. Not this time. I lost you once, and I'm sure as _hell_ not losing you again."

Nikita's heart swells with both love and concern. "Bret," she pleads, "it's _dangerous."_

"All the more reason to tag along," reasons Bretman. _"Someone's_ gotta watch your back."

"Bret—"

"Kita, please. I wanna help you. Don't leave me alone."

He's stubborn. He cares about her _way_ too much, just like someone else she used to know. If she makes him stay behind tonight, he won't get a wink of sleep until she's home, and they both know it. As much as she wants to keep him safe, she can't say no to his wide brown eyes.

(She never wants to hurt a pair of wide eyes ever again.)

"Okay, fine." She grabs a nice yellow jacket out of their shared closet and tosses it at him. "You can come, I guess. But you _better_ be careful. Don't be a hero, don't step out of line, and for God's sake, _don't_ trust me to bail you out of trouble. Got it?"

"Got it," he agrees, beaming at her in that special Bretman way.

"And don't gawk at the cute boys."

"There's gonna be cute boys?!?"

Nikita sighs. A little voice in her head whispers that she's making a mistake, that she's going to regret bringing Bretman, that she's going to kill him just like she killed Manny, that the friend she's leaned on for all these months is going to be destroyed because she couldn't make him keep his nose out of what doesn't concern him. But she silences those voices for her sanity's sake. "Come on. Let's get ready to kick some ass."

**Author's Note:**

> I can't wait to see this friendship in action!


End file.
